Zimpapers Logo

Caf president Ahmad Ahmad

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
REFEREES on Caf assignments will now be paid by the continental body instead of the host association to help eliminate ethical challenges.
The decision was reached at the Caf executive committee meeting held in Casablanca, Morocco, on Wednesday.

“This reduces the financial burden on national associations and also eliminates an ethical challenge because it removes the suspicion perceived between national associations and the referees,” read a statement from the African football governing body.

The meeting also confirmed that the inter-club competitions will run concurrently with the European calendar, beginning in September and ending in May the following year.

This year’s inter-club competitions will be the last to run from February to November, with the Caf Champions League final set to be over the weekends of November 2-4 and 9-11, while the Confederation Cup final will be on the weekends of November 23-25 and November 30 to December 2.

To accommodate this transition, the next inter-club campaigns will run from December 2018 to May 2019 before the final change sees the competitions beginning in September 2019.

Caf will also roll out the distribution of performance measuring devices, known as “fieldwiz” kits, to all member associations “for better monitoring of players’ performances” during matches.

FieldWiz is a strategy and physical performance measuring tool for outdoor team sports players. It is a standalone device worn on a player’s back to collect statistics and is synchronized at the end of a game or practice session with any mobile device via Bluetooth.

Data represented on the mobile application or the online account includes distance covered on the pitch by players, time spent on the field, accelerations and sprints, among other scientific calculations. — @skhumoyo2000